August 25, 2014 - School is back in session!

Oh my goodness.  Summer is finally coming to an end.  THANK GOODNESS!  No more vacations!  No more crazy schedules!  The only down side is less busy mornings.  But I'm sure we'll find a way to fill them up.  Sister Ketring and I stay pretty busy. :)

Um.... I forgot my planner, so it's hard to remember what went on this week...

Ooh!  We have some (more) new people to teach!  So, the first person we're going to start teaching is this 7-year old named David Pitt.  His mom, Tera, is starting to be active, and David wants to be baptized, but since he hasn't grown up in primary or anything, the bishop wants us to teach him.  He is such a super sweet kid, sort of a ladies charmer.  He loves to flirt!  Cute, good kid. :)

Also, the Martin girls are going to start inviting their friend over to their lessons.  So, originally, the Martin girls were supposed to return to their mother with summer ending, but the parents ended up switching around their custody arrangements, and so now they're staying for the school year!  This is a huge blessing, because we were worried that if they went back to their mom, they wouldn't be ale to take the lessons anymore, and it's still looking iffy on if they can be baptized or not.  But apparently, mom is coming up to "assess" the living situation.  So we might be able to get permission from her this next week.  Anyways, we went to teach the girls last night, and they invited their friend, Emma over, and Emma's parents were okay with her coming over!  Emma's dad works with some LDS people, so apparently he's pretty impressed by his co-workers.  The martins plan to invite Emily's family to church soon, so it's super exciting!

We didn't get to teach the Stinchcombs this week (Josh and Evan), because of school starting, but we should be back to teaching them this week.

Um..... oh!  We're starting to teach the Marsalas the New member discussions.  They were baptized the Saturday before Sister Ketring and I got here.  Since Nick had to be in Twin Falls for work, we got to focus on Stephanie and talked about the Book of Mormon.  We committed her to finish reading the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, and we're going to read it with her.  

Anyways, I think that's it.  I love y'all!  Keep strengthening your faith!  It can produce miracles!

Love,

Sister Empey

And pictures....

This is what Elder Homer did last week for P-day.... photoshopping... it was pretty funny. :)  People from left to right: Elder Richardson, James, President and Sister Cannon, myself, Sister Ketring, unknown Elder whose name I cannot remember, and Elder Salinas.

Sister Ketring and I (you finally see a face!  GASP!)

 One of the Marsala's Pug, Baxter.

And I found R2D2!  It was a pretty awesome moment. :)

And that's all for this week.  Enjoy!  Love you!

August 18, 2014 - Busy, busy, busy!

D&C 18:10, 15-16

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

"And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

"And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!"

I feel the joy that these scriptures express right now.  It is such a wonderful feeling!  The more I work in Kuna, the more I love the people and desire to bring them God's word.  The work is going great here!

So, we have 2 new investigators!  Their names are Josh and Evan Stingcomb, and they are 11 and 9.  Their dad, Brian, is a less active, and their mom is an atheist.  But Brother Vasso (the Elders Quarem President) has been working with Brian, and recently got him to agree to let his kids take the discussions!  Both of the kids are really sweet, along with their 6 year old brother Micah who's autistic.  Josh is obviously very smart, maybe a little too much for his own good, and likes to keep to himself and is looking forward to all the facts and such.  And then little Evan is very spiritual.  He talked about how he had been trying to pray the way Brother Vasso taught them a few weeks ago.  And when we committed them to say a prayer every night, he (Evan) committed to make sure his brother (Josh) prayed with him!  It was pretty cute. :)  Evan was very involved with our discussion-- we both can tell that he's prepared to hear the Gospel.  Josh might take a little bit more work, but he's a good kid, and I know that he'll feel the Spirit as well. :)

We also met a former/potential investigator named Scott Peterson.  He's married to a member, and has taken the discussions a couple of times, but just hasn't felt ready, or something dramatic happens.  He was really nice, and his wife and her daughter accepted us right in. :)

We also finally were able to meet one of the investigators the other sisters had last night at a seminary fireside-- Brittany Heitzman.  She's a super cute, bubbly, 16-year old who's on color guard.  Her friend in the 3rd ward introduced her to the church, and she wanted to be taught by sisters, so we're going over to her house to teach her.  She was also really excited to sign up for Seminary.

There are also 3 little girls that we are teaching right now-- Chloe and Chantel, who are twins and are... 10 I think, and then Tyla is 8, and they're all sisters.  They're super cute. :)  Their dad hasn't been active due to work mostly, and their mom, who lives in Oregon, has been completely inactive.  They live with their dad during the summer, and he lives with his parents, so we teach them every Monday.  And if the mom's work schedule changes, they might be staying through until the fall too!  It's pretty awesome. :)  We're hoping that they can get baptized-- they love primary, and love us. :)  They're super cute. :)

And..... I'm trying to think of anyone else...

OH!

So, cool story. :)

So, we were just knocking on members doors our first week here, trying to learn everyone, and trying to get a feel of who's active and less active, and we knock on the Renyolds door, who is a family that's completely inactive.  Shannon seemed a little weary, but Shawn was all like "Come on over and we'll feed you dinner!"

So, we scheduled a dinner appointment with them for this past Friday, and started praying that it wouldn't fall through.

Thankfully, it didn't.  We had buffalo burgers (which, by the way, are so good.  I think they're better than regular beef patties.), and we had a good time.  At first, we didn't know if they would say a prayer or not, so Sister Ketring and I said a silent mini prayer to ourselves and started eating.  Then Shawn, grinning, said "You know that the rule in our house is that whoever starts eating before the prayer has to say the prayer, right?"

He caught me mid-bite in my corn, so I offered the prayer.  It was pretty funny.  They're an awesome family too.  They're really into hunting, and have had a variety of interesting pets.  They currently have a scorpion, but have had 4 raccoon and a bobcat at one point.  We really like them-- they're pretty funny.  We don't know how willing they would be to come back to church, but we're just going to be their friends for now-- and that's not very hard to do. :)

And.... yeah.  I think that's it.  I'm getting the hang of riding a bike (Yup!  I'm in a bike area!), and it's been super fun.  I love it out here in Kuna, and love all the people I come in contact with. :)

I hope all of you are doing well!  I love all of you!  Keep the Faith!

Love,

Sister Empey

August 11, 2014 - SHOTGUNNING!!!!

Ohmigoodness, I LOVE Kuna!!!!  It seriously could possibly become my favorite area.

So, Sister Ketring and I are Shotgunning the area-- they took the two previous sisters out, and put the two of us in at the same time.  So we're both new to the area, and there's been a lot of exploring this week. :)

So, the first person we met was Sister Jepson, who is basically our unofficial WML.  She came over because she called us to see if our dinner schedule was filled out, and... we had no one for the week.  Completely blank.  so, she came to pick up the schedule, and invited us for dinner the next night.  Which was a good thing, because her husband is the first counselor in the Bishopric.  And as we were talking, he asked if we would be willing to talk, and both of us were like "YES!"

He was in shock.  He was surprised by how willing we were to talk in Sacrament meeting.

So we talked this week.  So, yesterday.  My talk was based off of Sister Burton's talk in the Conference Ensign-- "Help Wanted: Helping Hands and a Willing Heart", or something like that.  It turned out really good. :)  I think the congregation felt the spirit between Sister Ketring and I speaking, since both ideas were around the idea of being a Disciple of Christ.

So, with a brand-new area and an unmarked Ward Directory from January, we were off to meet the people of the ward!

Anyways, most of this week was just meeting people.  There's Sister Scott, a recent convert, who gave us a skirt for free (she sells skirts and dresses out of her home.);  Mr. Easley, who lived in a former members home and think could be a potential investigator; Cadhen Renyolds, an investigator who we need moms permission to baptize and not getting it; and the other Renyolds, who were apparently a "tread lightly", and they invited us over for dinner for this Friday!

Needless to say, it's been a busy week. :)  I love it out here.  And there's also a snocone shack in our area that gives us free snocones.  Yeah, life can't get much better right now. :)

Anyways, no pictures this week-- I can't find my SD card.  But hopefully I can send some home next week!

I'm sorry that this email is sort of short-- hopefully, as we develop relationships, my emails will have better detail.

I love you all, and hope everything is going well for you!  Keep the faith strong!

Love,

     Sister Empey

August 4, 2014 - *insert crazed happy face here*

OHMIGOODNESS I don't even know where to begin!!!  o_O

So, I'll just get the squealing out of the way:

I'M GOING TO KUNA IDAHO!!!!!!!!

Yup, I've had a great 6 weeks here in Nampa, but I'm moving on to Kuna, just south of where I am now, with Sister Ketring.  And Sister Ketring knows how to do hair too, so this will be an awesome companionship. :)  I'm super stoked to go to Kuna; I've been wanting to go to Kuna since I came out and started learning the areas.  So yeah, super excited.

So, highlight of the week:

I saw these 3 beautiful ladies yesterday at church (Namely Sierra, Marissa, and Jenny)!  They're all girls I went to Cosmo school with, and they were taking a road trip up to Seattle and just happened to stop by the church that I'm serving at for Sacrament meeting!  We couldn't talk for long-- I had a Ward Council meeting to go to, and they needed to get into Sacrament meeting, but it was super nice to see them. :)  I sort of sqealed like a little girl when I saw them.  In front of the high councilman for missionary work in my stake.  Oops.  He was pretty nice about it though.  He was happy that I had that little slice of joy, and commented that he could see how much they meant to me. :)

Anyways, there's not much else to report.  We were busy, I just can't remember what we did....

Oh!  We made homemade jelly this week. :)  Cherry Plum jelly.  It's SO good!

Um..... yeah.  I think that's it.  I can't really think of any other news.

So, on to pictures!

 Myself, Sister Fox (Sister Keyser's new companion), and Sister Keyser.

 Taylor Lawes (my mission BFF-- her little sister was Sierra), and me.

And let's admit it-- this is totally me. :)

Anyways, I love y'all!  Hear from you soon!

Love,

Sister Empey